Tom DeLonge has shared a message he sent to Matt Skiba paying his respects for all he did for blink-182 whilst he was absent.
Now, the big news of the week has been the return of Tom DeLonge to blink-182, and the announcement of new music and a world tour.
But within all of the excitement, there was something else very important to do.
And that is to pay respect to Matt Skiba, who joined the band in 2015 following Tom’s departure.
Matt played on the last two blink albums, 2016’s ‘California’ and 2019’s ‘Nine’, which both feature songs that deserve to be held up as some of the finest in the band’s career.
And now Tom has revealed a message he sent to Matt thanking him for his hard work and keeping “the band alive and thriving in my absence”.
It’s an incredibly sweet and vital post to read, and one that shows just how much Tom appreciates what the last seven years have represented for blink.
You can read it in full below, along with the caption “I sent this to Matt personally, but it’s important for the world to know that I honor him. Thank you, @matttskiba“
“Hi Matt-
Tom DeLonge here. I wanted to take a minute and say thank you for all that you have done to keep the band alive and thriving in my absence. I think you are enormously talented (I still love to listen to your band to this day). You have always been so kind to me, not only in the press but also to others. I really noticed. Emotions between the three of us in blink have always been complicated, but Mark’s cancer really put things in perspective. But to be honest, the band would not even be here today if it were not for your ability to jump in and save the day. So from my heart to yours, thank you for being a member of our band.”
And you can now hear the first blink song featuring Mark, Tom and Travis in ten years.
That’s ‘Edging’ and it sounds like this: